May 5th is Cinco de Mayo. This year, it’s also the Kentucky Derby and National Hoagie Day. What’s a holiday-focused food writer to do?

We can recommend that you use the Holidays & Occasions pull-down menu at the right and peruse the content for both holidays. But we’re going to focus on custard.

Why custard? Well, May 5th is National Chocolate Custard Day (photo #5).

As we were served a panna cotta dessert (photo #1) yesterday, we thought of how it has replaced a richer custard, crème brûlée, on restaurant menus; and how decades earlier, crème brûlée replaced plain baked custard, scented with nutmeg or cinnamon.

Every culinary student studies the three classic French baked custards: crème brûlée (photo #2), crème caramel (photo #3), and pot de crème. All three are made of eggs, milk and/or cream, and sugar, in different proportions, along with a flavoring such as vanilla.

 
Our mother made that classic baked custard scented with nutmeg. It was so rich and eggy—even though she used milk instead of cream. We hesitate to bake it today because you can’t bake just one or two ramekins—and we have no restraint.
 
 
TYPES OF CUSTARD

There are more than 50 additional custard dishes and terms in our Custard Glossary, one of 100 NIBBLE glossaries that give you a great understanding of each category of food.

See the difference between custard and pudding below.
 
 
THE HISTORY OF CUSTARD

Custard as we know it dates back to the Middle Ages when it was used as a filling for a flan or a tart.

The word custard is derived from “crustade,” a tart with a crust. A popular tart filling was what we came to call custard.

After the 16th century, fruit creams became popular, and it was about this time that custards began to be made in individual dishes or bowls rather than as fillings for a crust.

Yet, as things move the full circle, today custard is used to fill tarts, Danish pastry, cream puffs, and éclairs. It is mixed into trifles and turned into savory sides, like mushroom custards.

It is turned into desserts like Bavarian creams, bread puddings, charlottes and Floating Island.

Mousse is a custard whipped into an airy froth.

Custards are prepared in two ways: stirred or cooked on top of the stove, or baked in the oven.

Stirred custards (also called crème anglaise, custard sauce, and soft custard) are cooked over low heat or in a double boiler to a thickened yet fluid consistency.

The custard is then refrigerated where it will continue to thicken. The repeated stirring prevents the custard from firming up. Instead, stirred custards are used as fillings, sauces, or ice cream bases.
 
 
THE DIFFERENCE BETWEEN CUSTARD & PUDDING

What Americans call pudding is a creamy, sweetened milk mixture thickened with cornstarch, then cooked.

These are found mostly in the form of chocolate pudding, vanilla pudding, butterscotch pudding, and lemon pudding. They do double duty as pie fillings.

When a recipe is exceptionally smooth and light, it is often called silk pudding.

American puddings contain no eggs. In the U.K. and Europe, they are known as blancmange.

In the U.K. “pudding” refers to any dessert. It also refers to sweet, cake-like baked, steamed and boiled puddings, usually made in a mold.

Savory puddings, such as corn pudding, are so-called because they contain milk and eggs, which thicken the mix; and savory “puddings” can be custards (we won’t go into the details at the moment).

Other foods that are called pudding include black pudding or blood pudding (which is a sausage) and Yorkshire pudding (baked batter, served as a side).

By the way, August 17th is National Vanilla Custard Day. June 26th is National Chocolate Pudding Day.

Custard and pudding tips to follow!

[1] Panna cotta (photo © Davio’s | Boston).

[2] Crème Brûlée (photo © David Venable | QVC).

[3] Crème caramel (photo © Suvir Saran).

[4] Raspberry pot de crème. Here’s the recipe from Driscoll’s (photo © Driscoll’s).

[5] For National Chocolate Custard Day, make this pot de crème. Here’s the recipe (photo © Martha Stewart).

[2] The current and original Mallomars packages (photo courtesy NPR.org).

[3] Bake your own Mallomars with this recipe from Saveur.

Treat yourself to milk and cookies, Princess Leia-style.

You’ll need soft cookies to adhere to the rim of the glass. We used Mallomars (photo #2). They’re probably sold out by now (the season ends in April), but like all Mallomars fans, we keep extra boxes on hand until they reappear in stores in the fall.

Or, bake your own with the recipe below.

Or, bake any chocolate cookie (to evoke Princess Leia’s brunette hair buns) and notch them while they’re still warm.
 
 
MALLOMARS HISTORY

Nabisco’s Mallomars are a very popular cookie in Metropolitan New York City, the original home of Nabisco.

A graham cracker circle is topped with marshmallow, then coated with a dark chocolate. The result is a puffy, sink-your-teeth-in delight.

The cookies were introduced in 1913, the same year as the southern Moon Pie—a cookie which has similar ingredients, but a different flavor. According to Wikipedia, the first box of Mallomars was sold in West Hoboken, New Jersey (now Union City).

They are sold only from October through through April, following a tradition that began of necessity, before refrigerated trucks.

 
The concept spread. In the U.K., chef Boyd Tunnock created Tunnock’s Teacakes in 1956, using Italian meringue on a biscuit (cookie) base, covered with milk chocolate.
They look like Mallomars’ fraternal twin.

See the chocolate-marshmallow cookie variations in different countries.
 
 
HOMEMADE MALLOMARS RECIPE

Want to make your own? Here’s a recipe from Saveur (photo #3).

Looking for Mother’s Day gifts? Want to get the jump on Father’s Day? Want to treat yourself?

Here are two kitchen items that got our attention—and given how many products we see each year, that’s hard to do!
 
 
ASOBU COLDBREW INSULATED PORTABLE BREWER

For lovers of cold brew coffee, this beauty from Asobu very efficient.

It brews your coffee into an insulated thermos, so you can keep cold brewed coffee with you all day, anywhere. Or, you can pour a cup and give it a quick zap in the microwave.

Just add coarse coffee grounds and cold water to the mesh cone and let it slowly drip. The resulting coffee is what you’ve come to expect from cold brew. Remove the top portion, add the leak-proof lid, and you’re ready to go—or stay.

The brewing carafe top is clear Tritan, an extremely durable BPA-free plastic that is used in the finest water bottles and food containers.

There are four color choices:

 
The brewer is $50.00. You can buy it online at AsobuBottle.com.
 
 
DRINKMATE SPRITZER

What will you sparkle next? asks the box of the Drinkmate Spritzer.

Unlike devices that carbonate water only, Drinkmate lets you carbonate anything, anywhere.

It’s a fun device for lovers of sparkling beverages.

The easily-portable system consists of a DrinkMate Spritzer gun, a BPA-free half-liter reusable carbonating bottle and two CO2 carbonator cylinders (for a total of 32 bottles of sparkling beverages).

Easy to operate, easy to clean, no electricity or batteries are used.

What can you carbonate? Any liquid. Water, of course, but also unleash your creative mixologist with:

 
You can also re-carbonate sparkling wine or beer that has gone flat.

The kit is $90 at Home Depot and other e-tailers/retailers, in black, red or silver.

[2] Drinkmate Spritzer turns almost any liquid into a carbonated beverage (photos #2 and #3 courtesy Drinkmate).

[3] The Drinkmate kit.

[2] Zucchini bread (photo #1 courtesy Tio Gazpacho, photo #2 courtesy Betty Crocker).

[3] The Edible Series books have deep histories of foods and beverages.

[4] A historical novel for lovers of great food and intrigue. Get your copy on Amazon.

We’ve just added our 400th food history to our History Of Foods & Beverages directory.

We first began to write food histories some 14 years ago, and one day had enough to create The History Of 100 Favorite Foods & Beverages. Little did we think that we’d get to 400.

These histories are embedded in our articles. A gazpacho recipe, for example, includes The History Of Gazpacho.

If we write an article on a particular food, we’ll either link to an existing history or create a new one. Food history #401 will debut in two days.

Sometimes the history is at the top of an article, but often it is at the end. So if you don’t see “The History Of [The Food]” immediately, scroll down.

WHY ALL THE FOOD HISTORY?

It enriches our appreciation of different foods, and the people who bred them into their modern form. For example:

 
Dedicated farmers cross-bred and nurtured plants and animals over millennia, until they became the foods we enjoy today. We thank them with every history we write.
 
 
THE EDIBLE SERIES OF BOOKS

Some of our histories are just a paragraph or two; some are quite detailed, based on the amount of verifiable information available.

If you want to dive deep into the histories, take a look at Reaktion Press’ excellent The Edible Series, distributed by the University Of Chicago Press.

There are currently 77 titles for sale on the websites.

Written by culinary historians in their areas of expertise, the books are some 130 pages long, and often add historical recipes.

For Mother’s Day, give Mom the history of her favorite food. Peruse the list.
 
 
A HISTORICAL FICTION: FEAST OF SORROW

We greatly enjoyed Feast Of Sorrow: A Novel of Ancient Rome (photo #3), which explores the Roman gourmand
Marcus Gavius Apicius, and the wealthy epicure’s remarkable rise and fall in the first century C.E.

Set among the upstairs-downstairs politics of a prominent Roman family, the novel by Crystal King focuses on the man who inspired the world’s oldest cookbook.

His singular ambition to serve as culinary advisor to Caesar—an honor that would cement his legacy as Rome’s leading epicure—led to his destruction.

But more than a fictional bio, the book describes in historic detail how food was prepared in ancient times.

 
You’ll be enthralled.

People have asked us to recommend chocolates for Mother’s Day, and this year’s recommendation is William Dean Chocolates.

We first encountered the brand at a chocolate show in New York City, a short time after its founding in 2007. The chocolates were—are—stunning, and the story of the chocolatier, Bill Brown, even more so (William is his and his father’s name; Dean is his grandfather).

He is one of the senior business executives we know* who left corporate life to make artisan chocolate.

After watching an episode on The Food Network while a corporate executive, he made truffles for his staff.

He later saw the work of artisan chocolatiers and knew he had found his next calling: to turn his lifelong artistic bent into making beautiful chocolates.

He learned to airbrush and paint chocolates, and to create creamy ganaches with irresistible flavor combinations that are tucked beneath the painted chocolate shells.

He read every book he could find about chocolate, took classes and trailed top chocolatiers to learn even more. Within two years, he was ready to open his doors.

Bill Brown now has a chocolate emporium in Florida, where customers drop in for coffee and chocolates or desserts (wish we were there!), and to buy gift boxes of chocolate or just a quarter-pound treat for the day.

He makes chocolate bonbons in some 30 flavors, from classics like Amaretto, Espresso, Grand Marnier and Passion Fruit to modern favorites like Crème Brûlée, Dulce de Leche, Lavender and Salted Caramel.
 
 
GIFT BOXES

Boxes are sold in 5, 10, 15, 20, 30 and 36 pieces. The assortments include dark, milk and white chocolate, although you can order custom boxes.

Boxes range from $12 to $70. There is a 36-piece assortment in a handsome wood box, but the shop’s standard blue box is beautiful enough (so nice you won’t want to toss the empty box).

Special boxes are available for corporate gifts, weddings and other occasions.

Order at WilliamDeanChocolates.com, and don’t forget a box for yourself!
 
 
LEARN MORE ABOUT CHOCOLATE

 
 
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*Joan Coukos of Chocolat Moderne and Kee Ling Tong of Kee’s Chocolates are two we love, among others.

[2] Key Lime bonbon.

[3] Rosemary Caramel bonbon.

[4] Port With Figs & Plum bonbon.